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Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

A regular NewAgeIslam.com columnist Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi is an Alim and Fazil (a classical Islamic scholar), having graduated from a leading Islamic seminary of India, Jamia Amjadia Rizvia (Mau, U.P.). He is now pursuing his PhD from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

To put it simply, Historicism in Islamic studies
connotes an intellectual approach for the contextualisation of the Qur’anic
texts in order to produce accurate explanations. In other words, it implies
that what happened in the past, should be discussed and elucidated in terms of
when it happened. Even the early Islamic historians like Ibn Khaldun employed
this scientific methodology and remarkably advanced it in his seminal work
“Muqaddama”. He referred numerous Islamic traditions back to the pre-Islamic customs
of what is known as “al-Arab al-Jahili” (Arab in the era of ignorance)……

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

This is the dichotomy between the Prophet’s peaceful struggle in Badr
and the virulent warmongering of the self-styled jihadists in Kashmir. More to
the point, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) achieved the bloodless victory without
retaliation against the bloodthirsty Meccans who attacked him, plotted to kill
him, stoned him, made his teeth to bleed, cracked his jaw and split open his
blessed face, peddled hate against his faith, murdered his beloved companions,
deformed the dead body of his blue-eyed uncle, Ameer Hamzah, and even eaten his
liver in a beastly manner. Contrary to the Prophet’s defensive battle of Badr
and peaceful victory in Makka, the militants’ war in Kashmir is calming the
innocent lives, mutilating the dead-bodies of Indian army officers, demeaning
their women and thus destroying lives and properties of both Muslims and
non-Muslims alike……

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Unquestionably,
today's Ulema and Islamic theologians find themselves incapable to provide
incisive guidance in modern societies, because their medieval interpretations
of the Islamic theology are patently out of date. Without understanding how
history changes society and persons, how can the Ulema be the thought leaders
in their community?....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

One wonders as to why the controversial Islamist preacher, who is also
reported to have the Saudi citizenship along with the Permanent Residence
status in Malaysia, is now seeking its citizenship. Is Naik planning to
radicalize the Malaysian youths after he has reportedly inspired a misguided
section of the South Asian Muslim youths including the Dhaka attackers? The reason why Naik has now set his eyes on
the Malaysian Muslims’ multi-cultural, syncretic and secular society of the
democratic ethos is not difficult to see. The Salafist ideologues castigate the
multi-culturalism, secularism and religious syncretism, in their books, as “inauthentic”
and “contaminated”....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

But the Islamic clergy, while boasting of their Qur’anic epithet of
Ahl-e-Zikr, have cunningly preached the gravest misgiving on the Islamic
viewpoint of Triple Talaq; that it is one of the fundamentals of the Islamic
law enshrined in the Quran. A far more negative role they are playing now is
that they are tarnishing the image of Islam and the egalitarian message of
Quran by misleading the Muslim women who work with them...

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

The Jamiat strongly opposed the World Sufi Forum calling it a political
stunt of the Indian government to divide the Muslim community over "Sufism
vs Wahhabism". At that time,
Maulana Madani proclaimed: “Sufism is nothing” and that the World Sufi Forum was
an NDA bid to "divide the Muslims". In a direct rebuttal to the World
Sufi Forum, another leading figure of the Jamiat, Maulana Arshad Madani stated:
“Sufism is no sect of Islam and is not found in the Quran”, while accusing the
Modi government of "trying to create acrimony in the Muslim
community"....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Earlier, Jamia has fairly conferred the honorary degrees to Dalai Lama,
Ban Ki-moon and Amartya Sen. These spiritual, social and intellectual
dignitaries have richly contributed to the global peace activism, human rights
protection and scientific temperament. They do inspire the university’s
students and academicians to explore the greater potentials to uphold the
universal human values. But what contribution has Erdogan rendered to the
educational, social or other humanitarian pursuits? Evidently, the political
Islamist leader does not fit into the list of the distinguished awardees of the
Jamia....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Common Muslims living in the democratic countries like France embrace the liberal values and secular ethos by intermingling with other citizens including the Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and adherents of other faith traditions. Thus, they find themselves inclined towards an inclusivist Islamic narrative focused on a spiritual synergy with the people of all faiths and creeds. But this greatly worries the radical preachers of political Islam who aim to purge the religion of its age-old tradition of pluralism, universalism and egalitarianism. Thus, the fresh ISIS attack in Paris was actually an ideological onslaught on the pluralistic values that Muslims in the European countries try to emulate....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Clearly, this would be typically seen by the 'conspiracy theorists' among Muslims as an 'onslaught' of the 'Hindutva nationalists' on the madrasa education system. Nevertheless, unlike the previous governments which loudly announced the 'reform movements' in the UP madrasa, Yogi Adityanath's government is gearing up for a major overhaul in the age-old madrasa education system. Apart from the new vocational courses which are highly required in the educational curricula of the UP Madrasas, tech-based education programmes and professional skill development will also be included in the new educational curriculum....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

“If you’ve read the Qur'an, then you can find the solution there itself. There is no such rule in Qur'an. They have just made it up.... You read the Qur'an in Arabic and but you don’t read the translation. You accept whatever the Maulanas (clerics) or the Mullas say. Read the Qur'an and Hadith and see what Rasool (Prophet Muhammad) had said”. Thus, Salma Ansari tried to ignite a flame of desire in the Muslim women to comprehend the Qur'an by themselves and introspect on its texts related to the talaq. Notably, a complete and comprehensive chapter (Surah) in the Qur'an is named as "al-Talaq".....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

As a matter of
fact, much like the Bhakti tradition in Hinduism, Sufism in Islam has always
been a glue for harmony and social affinity in India. As long as Hindus and
Muslims followed the universal values and the essential ideals of Sufism or
Bhaktimat, religious discord did not prevail in the country. But both seem to
have lost their spiritual paths under the influence of the political
motives.....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

The
recently attacked Sufi shrine in Pakistan, Dargah Lal Shahbaz Qalandar is
equally venerated and visited by Pakistan’s Sufi-oriented Muslim majority and
the Hindu minority. Inevitably, not only Muslim devotees, but even a
considerable number of non-Muslims were killed in the suicide blast.
Regrettably, it is quite ironic to see the Prophetic ideals being brazenly
violated by the puritanical Islamists in Pakistan, given the state was created
in the name of Nizam-e-Mustafa (the Prophetic system of governance)with its
constitution loudly being claimed to follow the model of Misaq-e-Madina….

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

It cannot be denied that the eight million American citizens are at
increasing risk for the daunting challenge from terrorist groups operating from
outside the US, particularly Syria, Iraq and several West Asian and North
African Muslim countries. Some of these groups including ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al
Shabab, and Boko Haram have indiscriminately targeted the American citizens in
several nefarious terror attacks. Given this, the uncompromising counter-terror
stances such as the above will considerably help rescue the US citizens who are
wantonly attacked by the radical Islamist terrorists.....

Instead of a stage-show of the Barelwi-Deobandi truce, it was high time both Muslim sects’ clergy sincerely reflected on the prevailing sectarian psyche plagued with extremist thoughts. An objective observation reveals that not only the Deobandi-Wahhabi clergy but a section of the present-day Barelwi ulema have also fanned the fire of religious extremism among the country’s gullible Muslims.....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

As various secular and liberal political parties brace for the
UP-assembly elections, the above SC ruling has come crashing down the political
ambitions of a few newly-formed Muslim parties with soaring dreams of a
self-styled Islamic governance system. Clearly, it had to come as a shock to
the religio-politicians whose agendas are relying on the ulterior religious
motives rather than secular principles of inclusive democracy….

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

From 1745 to 1818, the Wahhabi movement waged the global jihad going
berserk more than even the Kharijites in their atrocities, as the 18th century
Arab scholar Shaykh Zaini Dahlan Makki, writes in his Arabic book “Al-Balad
Al-Haram” (the sacred city). The aggression of the Wahhabi jihadists spread
rapidly throughout the Muslim world, causing great distress among the common
people. Given this, the governor of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha sent his army to
Saudi Arabia on the behest of the Ottoman Caliphate. After a long battle, the
Egyptian forces defeated the Najdis and completely destroyed the capital of the
first Saudi dynasty, Diriyah where the Wahhabi movement spearheaded. Thus, the
Wahhabi jihadsim was militarily defeated to an extent, but it remained active
on an ideological level to this day and age…..

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Some of them
even make a mockery of the Sufi denomination, blatantly emboldening the
sectarian war-mongers in the country. A fatwa-factory declaring the Sufi
practices as 'Haram' (forbidden in Islam), 'Bid’at' (un-Islamic innovation) and
'Mushrikana Rasm' (heretical practice) can be seen in the mainstream Urdu media
in Pakistan, let alone the social networking sites. This is how the country's
Urdu media is radicalising the common Muslim viewers and readers who are
already influenced by the sectarian tendencies....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

This is a
trying time for all the Sufi practitioners and shrine-visitors in India and
Pakistan. First time in the history, Ajmer Sharif--the biggest Sufi shrine in
India--is being used in a large political campaign of the Jami'at Ulema-e-Hind
(JUH), whose key members and religio-politicians declare Sufism
"un-Islamic", yet chose the largest Sufi shrine to organise their
33th annual conference, clearly in an attempt to woo the mainstream
Sufi-oriented Muslims in India….

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

The reason for
the fresh vicious attacks on Hindu minority in Bangladesh, as the radical
Islamists claim, was the local fisherman’s Facebook post which allegedly
‘denigrated the Ka’aba—the holiest Islamic place of worship. Though the
fisherman denied sharing the post and the Police immediately arrested him for
‘hurting religious sentiment’, the religious goons were going haywire brazenly
violating the law and order in the country. ....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Muslim leaders
and politicians in India are busy in a crazy competition of organizing
conferences, greater campaigns and processions to protect their ‘right to
triple Talaq’. Countrywide hue and cry is still being heard from the
self-imposed Muslim representatives championing the cause of Tahaffuz-e-Shariat
(protection of Shariah). “Islam is under
attack” is their daily sloganeering in India. But what about the birthplaces of
Islam—Makka and Madina— which suffer the brutal and bloodthirsty attacks?...

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

There is no
denying the fact the martyrdom has a great place in Islam. But the true Islamic
martyrdom is completely different from the self-styled jihadist concept of
martyrdom, which is synonymous with wanton killing of innocent civilians....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

To begin with
it, Indian ulema will have to evolve a robust and progressive interpretation of
the Islamic scriptures and a well-reasoned and rational understanding of the
Islamic doctrines such as jihad, hakimiyah (God’s rule over the earth),
khilafah (Islamic caliphate) and ishtishhad (seeking martyrdom) and al-wala
wal-bara (love and hatred for the sake of God). These are some of the
theological terminologies and references from the Quran and hadith that the
violent Jihadists misconstrue to justify their atrocities. Indian Muftis need
to articulate a complete and coherent Islam-based refutation of the takfirist
theology itself, rather than resorting to the takfirism against the terrorists.
Only then they can help to rescue the new-age gullible Muslim youths from the
creeping ...

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

… it has been preached on the radical
Islamist and Salafist channels and websites that Ramadan is an occasion to
create fear in the hearts of disbelievers, a month of mayhem and calamity for
the infidels (Mulhideen), non-believers (Kuffar) and polytheists (Mushrikin),
the exclusivist Islamist terms that include both non-Muslims and liberal and
moderate Muslims or sects like Shia and Ahmadi. This is what the self-styled
jihadists learn from the radical Islamist preachers and tele-evangelists.…

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

While Muslims the world over are preparing for the Eid al-Fitr that
marks the end of Ramadan, jihadists are hell-bent on making it ‘a month of
mayhem for the infidels’. It is simple and plain. The spokesman for the ISIS
Abu Mohammed al-Adnani had said in the very beginning of the Islamic month that
the jihadists should “make it, with God’s permission, a month of calamity for
infidels everywhere.”....

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam

It might help the ulema come out of denial if they listened to the confessions of former senior imam of Haram, the Grand Mosque of Mecca, Sheikh Adel al-Kilbani. To our utter surprise, Sheikh Kilbani has admitted that the jihadist theology emanates from the same Islamic literature being taught in Saudi Arabia.